Community Reviews

George MacDonald's influence is quite wide - C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, L'Engle, Auden, Nesbit, Chesterton - heck, even Mark Twain, allegedly; not to mention innumerous other souls. He was mentor to Lewis Carroll and well known to the literary luminaries of his day - Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Whitman, Longfellow...

This was my introduction to MacDonald - 12 of his sermons.

Sky Pilot MacDonald really excited me. He was interesting to read. Each of the twelve sermons was a small masterpieceGeorge MacDonald's influence is quite wide - C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, L'Engle, Auden, Nesbit, Chesterton - heck, even Mark Twain, allegedly; not to mention innumerous other souls. He was mentor to Lewis Carroll and well known to the literary luminaries of his day - Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Whitman, Longfellow...

This was my introduction to MacDonald - 12 of his sermons.

Sky Pilot MacDonald really excited me. He was interesting to read. Each of the twelve sermons was a small masterpiece in prose. I only wish that the preachers of today had as wide of vocabularies and as deep of intellects as MacDonald. I turn on AM radio today to hear slavering bulldogs frothing at the mouth, with vain repetitions. MacDonald wasn't a repeater of popular religious phrases, viz., "Amen, a door is opening, praise God, hallelujah, I feel the anointing" — no, MacDonald was anything but this type of soap-boxed emotional asininity.

Again, I must decry the simple pleasure of reading these sermons - the simplicity of the language complex in of itself, witty, with long well thought out sentences which leave you hungry for the next revelation. There is too a rich humor. At one point I actually laughed out loud - which I suspect is a rarity in sermon reading. I can't help but wonder if MacDonald had these sermons memorized or simply read them to his congregation.

I wouldn't want to muck MacDonald's sermons up by critiquing them, or pulling them apart piece by piece. They are each so complete, so succinct, one should digest them selfishly and relish the insights personally. Please do - and spread the Word. ...more

George MacDonald shares a wonderful testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. His understanding of the mind of God and the steps we take in our journey to him is remarkable. Many of his illustrations rang home with me, causing me to say to myself, "I'm guilty of that. Funny, never noticed it before."

If you familiar with the works of C.S. Lewis and want to know about those who influenced him, then I also recommend this book, as well as others by Georg MacDonald. Many of the sermons in this book arGeorge MacDonald shares a wonderful testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. His understanding of the mind of God and the steps we take in our journey to him is remarkable. Many of his illustrations rang home with me, causing me to say to myself, "I'm guilty of that. Funny, never noticed it before."

If you familiar with the works of C.S. Lewis and want to know about those who influenced him, then I also recommend this book, as well as others by Georg MacDonald. Many of the sermons in this book are source material for C.S. Lewis' later works.

Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S. Lewis that wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I beGeorge MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.

Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S. Lewis that wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier." G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence."

Elizabeth Yates wrote of Sir Gibbie, "It moved me the way books did when, as a child, the great gates of literature began to open and first encounters with noble thoughts and utterances were unspeakably thrilling."

Even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald.